Interdisciplinary cultural practitioner William Cordova works at the intersection of architecture, politics, and social concerns, particularly those that seek to broaden participation in the definition and creation of culture. For Cordova, history is an archive of references with which to investigate ideological and artistic expressions. He is interested in serving the public through the fusion of artistic practice, archival documentation, and the production of knowledge.

With yawar mallku: sculpting in time, Cordova creates multiple connections that unite time and space through physical structures related to philosophy, geog-raphy, and spirituality. The work explores the influence of transcendental philosophers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau on two very different fronts. One is the architectural experimentation of Frank Lloyd Wright; the other is the socialist, communal, and non-Western thinking of young, radical political activists associated with the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords Organization, and the American Indian Movement of the late 1960s and early '70s.

The installation consists of interrelated parts, including a wooden scaffolding that alludes to Wright's so-called Pottery House in Santa Fe, the architect's only design in adobe. Wright created the plans for the house, but was unable to complete it prior to his death. The original scaffolding serves as the inspiration for Cordova's structure and for the drawings and embossed prints that surround it. Wright's practice is evident in the overall design and the organic forms. The top portion of the installation, however, features a wooden platform for clay spheres that suggest a celestial constellation and are made from materials found in historic locations in Santa Fe, Chicago, and Mexico. Cordova's investment in Andean, Pueblo, Aztec, and Japanese traditions is manifested in his choice of materials and in his references to labyrinths and portals.

Cordova incorporates Wright's architecture as a symbolic form to reevaluate assumptions about Western modernism and about standards of ownership and authenticity. Connections between structure, the land, political activism, and philosophical ideas are underscored by the harmony the installation creates between the man-made and natural worlds.

- Rocío Aranda-Alvarado